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We just returned from the National Eucharistic Congress where we spent five days with tens of thousands of like-minded Catholics in the convention area of downtown Indianapolis. For five days everywhere we went, we encountered brothers and sisters in Christ. Everyone we passed on the street, everyone we sat next to in the restaurants, everyone who's smiling face greeted us as the elevator door opened, they all had those orange lanyards which told us why they were there. It was the kind of experience that you didn't want to end, but not only did we need to go home, we were literally sent home. None other than Cardinal Tagle in his Sunday homily told us, "Go in Peace; Please, go!" So home we went, only to be greeted by friends from our parish community who wanted to hear all about it. They had been watching on their computers and televisions, but they knew it was different to be there, and they wanted to know how.
You have to start with the daily Eucharistic Adoration. You expected the experience had to feel more distant because we were in a football stadium, yet it somehow still felt intimate. No matter where you sat, whether you closed your eyes or not, somehow you felt connected with our Lord. It was something like those occasions at home when you looked up in the midst of Adoration and realized the church or the chapel was filled, and you thought something special is going on. It was something like that but multiplied by a lot.
The healing service on Friday stood out to me. We had been asked to visualize Jesus, yet the image in my mind was not His face but instead His heart, pumping and flowing. This surprised me because as an artist I've imagined His face many times before, but why this time was He showing me His heart? We were asked to unload on Him, give Him our pain so we could allow Him to heal us. I could feel something happening and I truly found healing. When the service was over I literally prayed that He help me to always remember this moment, it was so special. Then at breakfast the next mornings our friends showed us a picture of my husband and I taken during the service which appeared with an article published by OSV. He actually gave me more than I asked for; He gave me an actual physical reminder!
I imagine the vision of the United States Conference of Bishops was that waves would spread from Indianapolis in all directions, as we all returned to our parishes. We would go home and talk about the procession, talk about the speakers, talk about the fellowship and especially the harmony because somehow for five days we all just got along. There were no Liberals or Conservatives, only Christians who were focused on our Lord. May God give me the grace to continue to look at others in that way. May He keep burning in us the Eucharistic fire he built, helping us to carry out the responsibility that comes with such a blessing. For we were called to be there, all of us. Now we've been called to go forth, glorifying the Lord with our lives.
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